21C/19c Procedures for anthropometric image reversal – recipe

This can be perceived as a recipe for ‘how to treat the images’, in this case with the aim of perceiving the persons depicted in a more sensitive way.One. Gather and recategorize the images in new chapters. (see earlier post)
Two. Put them in an order that makes sense stop-motionwise, content-related, or/and emotionally. Reframe them.
Three. Rythm the images. The rythm is decided while recording with Bolex 16mm camera. Repeating an image 24 times will make it visible during 1 second, showing it twice will make it pass really quick, once can make sense in a very quick suite of similar images. My friends and collegues complain about my speeding. I try to find ways to speed ànd keep them happy. I have tried very different kinds of rythms, even a heartbeat, which did not work.
Four. In the darkroom. Develop the negative film. Test first!
Five. In the darkroom. Copy it by flatprinting. Flatprinting is a manual method of printing film. Basically you press the negative film and the receiving film on a tabletop. With a flashlight you illuminate it for a moment that may neither be too short nor too long. Tests first. This technique gives a strange kind of life to the images thanks to multiple accidents. As your movements are always imperfect, the image tends to slide over the screen, become less sharp etc. The interesting thing is that, with experience, one starts to gain control over and repeat the most interesting mistakes.
Six. In the darkroom. Develop the new film as positive. Test. Look for more grey or more contrast depending on how you want the images to look. After many tests and mistakes I went for grey, as I wanted the people in the images keep as much nuance as possible, to keep them complex and us sensitive. Or as Etienne Caire of MTK puts it: our eye wanders through the greys, exploring.
Seven. Select. Only keep the images that really work. But store the rest; one day you might find something very interesting in the film you want to throw away today.
Eight etc.. make copies, show the work.

My aim with this suite of actions is to speak of my astonishment about the existance of the anthropometric photocollections and the way they were built up, meanwhile showing the people in the images as the sensitive beings we strongly relate to.